


It

by SLWalker



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Dehumanization, Gen, Sentient person being referred to in dehumanizing terms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-14 03:51:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15380058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SLWalker/pseuds/SLWalker
Summary: Because of the entirely common trope where fic writers unironically write their heroes dehumanizing the villain by using 'it' as a descriptor.  Or: A study in how the heroes sometimes act just like the worst of the villains.





	It

"It's male."

Talzin/Kycina heard the words at the same time; the first with vague irritation, the second with a moment of tired resignation. Talzin knew their child would be male and had informed the clan, but she believed that her son would be strong; that he would be one to make destiny, or change it.

Kycina knew only that she would have to give him away, just as she had his older brother.

But to the other Nightsisters, the child quickening in their womb was only _it_ , and worth no more than that.

 

 

 

  
"It will survive or it won't."

TD-D9's owner and master sounded relatively unconcerned, suggesting there was no particular outcome at this time that the man wished for, in terms of the infant boy. TD-D9 had expressed some worry that the infant appeared weak, and that was when the man had informed him that said infant had not been fed on the trip from Dathomir.

"Should I feed-- it?" TD-D9 asked, watching carefully as the man looked down at the weak thrashing of the child still in the blanket his mother had swaddled him in.

"Mm. Yes, do. But don't coddle it; if it's to be of any use to me at all, it can't be spoiled."

TD-D9 didn't nod, but his red photoreceptors flashed briefly brighter in nonverbal response. "Yes, Master Sidious."

 

 

 

  
"It doesn't even look right. And it eats its meat raw!"

Maul felt a hot flush all through his body; shame, which he was well-familiar with. And anger, which he also knew well.

But also pain, unexpected and surprising, as it lanced through his chest like a physical thing centered next to his hearts. He would have beaten them for it, but his master had made it clear that he was to pick no unauthorized fights or draw any unnecessary attention to himself. He would be training here for a long time to come; the punishment for ruining that by attacking classmates would make death a mercy.

He bared his teeth back at them, but he still ended up asking for his food to be cooked after that.

 

 

 

 _It's been trained in the Jedi arts,_  Qui-Gon Jinn thought, as he lay just inside of the Nubian ship, panting for air.

 

 

 

"It's undeniably dead," Obi-Wan Kenobi said, misery radiating off of him.

Anakin opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again more tentatively. "--don't you mean _he_ , Master?"

Master Obi-Wan looked down at him, surprise crossing his face and that same face flushing red, but he didn't correct himself.

Anakin wondered what that meant. And maybe how it applied to him, too.

 

 

 

  
It is not undeniably dead, but perhaps it is, in every way that matters.

 _I am,_  Maul tried to think, through the haze of infection and pain and disorientation, but the words wouldn't come. The anger did, though. The frustration. Both useful things. He held onto them, but in the darkness and stench of Lotho Minor, he still tried to remember. _I am--_

The words never came.

He didn't know what he was.  Or if he was.

Or if he ever was.

 

 

 

Perhaps he never was, only it was.

**Author's Note:**

> Because of the entirely common trope where fic writers unironically write their heroes dehumanizing the villain by using 'it' as a descriptor. Or: A study in how the heroes sometimes act just like the worst of the villains.


End file.
